India’s Law Enforcement Probes Dark Net Markets

Officials from India claim to have had their ‘first’ run in with Dark Net Market (DNM) usage. The Hindustantimes just reported on how Indian Anti-Narcotics agencies are focusing in on these new markets and improving their surveillance methods.

India’s Watchdog Probes DNM’s

India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) found two illegal drug smuggling syndicates online. The authorities say they are currently monitoring DNM usage within the region. So far, the team has interdicted two groups maintaining illicit activity online in the country.

NCB Director General, RR Bhatnagar, stated:

For the first time, we have detected drug traffickers using the darknet and Bitcoin for running the illegal drug racket in India. I can tell you that our investigations have shown that some of these operatives are based in the country. We are probing them.

Bhatnagar explains that the operations were selling a variety of “party drugs” and that accessing these cryptographic landscapes can be worrisome. However, he adds that the abilities of Indian officials for monitoring such activities have improved.

On the same note, the Director says that cross-border heroin traffic has decreased. The agency says its smuggling in Punjab had decreased by 30%. The NCB official adds “Our estimate is that due to effective clampdown by the agencies tasked to check the drugs menace.” Last year all the data recorded for trafficking heroin showed 100% of the smuggling taking place in Punjab.

Not the First Time for India

Meanwhile, this is not actually the first time authorities in India have run into the DNM operations. Back in August of 2015 two college students from Kumaraswamy were caught using the marketplace Agora. They were caught with LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and mobile phones and said they made the purchases using the deep web.

R Ramesh, an officer of the Central Crime Branch, stated the first instance of Indian drug purchasing online at the time, saying:

This is the first time we are arresting peddlers who claimed to have bought drugs online. They use special software to access the website, which keeps the identity of both buyer and seller anonymous. Tracing the IP address is also proving to be difficult. All transactions on the website are done through fake profiles, which makes it harder to trace the users.

Internationally DNM’s are continuing to rise and it seems law enforcement is taking notice to the activities online. There are DNM’s revealing themselves throughout India’s borders such as the “Amazon of India” marketplace called Indiamart.

It seems law enforcement has no problem informing the public they are monitoring the situation with their attempts to continue the failed drug war. Users should use extreme caution and deep anonymity while surfing these websites on the hidden web. At the same time, as Bitcoin grows in popularity throughout the country, DNM’s can be expected to become more prevalent.

Will DNM’s also experience a boom in India? Let us know in the comments below!

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written hundreds of articles about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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